"We'll retreat for now and get ourselves back into fighting shape!"
Kong, the Steel Bone, and the other two top CP0 agents exchanged glances before retreating in perfect tacit understanding.
However, just as they lowered their guard ever so slightly—
"Windfury: Dragon Claw Blade!"
A hoarse voice suddenly rang out from behind the three of them. At the same time, a terrifying surge of power swept toward them.
"Not good!!!"
Their bodies stiffened.
Observation Haki screamed an intense warning of danger at them, and all three instantly reacted in different ways.
Kong covered his body in a layer of skeletal armor.
The former CP0 captain created a vacuum around himself while simultaneously wrapping his body in an air membrane.
Both of them also coated themselves in Armament Haki.
Meanwhile, the current CP0 captain instantly turned his entire body into dust, scattering through the air.
"Bam!"
The attack struck all three of them with terrifying precision.
"Urgh!"
The three felt an enormous force crash into their backs, tearing straight through their defenses before slamming heavily into their bodies.
Under that single blow, blood sprayed from their ears, the corners of their eyes, their noses, and their mouths.
The agent who possessed the Dust-Dust Fruit suffered the worst of it.
Because he had transformed into dust, he hadn't used Armament Haki.
He had thought that turning himself into dust would be enough to evade the attack, but he never expected his opponent's ability to perfectly counter his own, directly striking his true body while it was completely unprotected by Haki.
His injuries were the most severe. He was blasted more than ten meters away, his internal organs nearly shattered.
"Cough, cough!! Revolutionary Army… Monkey… D… Dragon!"
The Dust-Dust Fruit user coughed up a large mouthful of blood, his eyes locked firmly on Dragon, who had suddenly appeared, as he forced the words out one by one.
As soon as he finished speaking, his eyes rolled back and he immediately lost consciousness.
"Wind can sweep away dust scattered across the ground~"
Wearing a dark green coat, with a red square-patterned tattoo covering the left side of his face, Dragon spoke in a hoarse voice as he looked at the shocked and furious expressions of the people on the ground.
A swirling mass of green wind danced above his right hand.
A Logia-type Thunder-Wind Fruit—or perhaps the Hurricane Fruit!!
Wind was Dragon's power!!
In canon, he had used the wind to carry a young Sabo away. In the Goa Kingdom, he had used the wind to extinguish the great fire. When Luffy was about to be executed in Loguetown, he had used the wind to blow thunderclouds over the execution platform. He had even directly blown Luffy out of Smoker's grasp!
Both the anime and the manga had repeatedly displayed Dragon's storm-related abilities, yet there were still people who pretended not to notice and stubbornly insisted that Dragon possessed some weather-controlling Mythical Zoan, Model: Dragon.
The reality was that Oda had already used Kaido to thoroughly prove those people wrong~
"And then there's this dragon's claw, honed specifically to shatter the tyrannical grip of those who monopolize power!"
As Dragon spoke in a deep voice, three figures emerged from the floor behind him.
"The Revolutionary Army's three commanders?! You used West Army Commander Morley's Push-Push Fruit to hide beneath the Holy Land Mary Geoise, then waited for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow to us, Dragon!!"
Kong roared furiously before coughing up another mouthful of blood.
It was obvious that Dragon's sneak attack had inflicted serious injuries on them.
An ambush from someone of Dragon's caliber, launched precisely when they had finally let down their guard, naturally left Kong and the others in terrible shape.
"We reached an agreement with the Thunder Emperor long ago. Although we haven't been able to provide much help here, the Revolutionary Army forces we have scattered throughout the world will be able to quickly maintain global stability after the World Government collapses, preventing the entire world from falling into paralysis."
Dragon's hoarse voice rang out as he indifferently looked at the people lying on the ground.
In canon, even with the Levely about to begin and the Holy Land Mary Geoise under extremely tight security, Sabo and the others had still managed to infiltrate by relying on Morley's Push-Push Fruit.
With the situation as it was now, infiltrating the Holy Land was naturally even easier.
The agent who was still conscious wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth before speaking in a sinister tone, deliberately attempting to sow discord.
"The Thunder Emperor is too powerful. Even in the worst-case scenario, if he really succeeds in overthrowing our World Government, you'll be his next target! On Raijin Island, he holds all authority entirely in his own hands. In the future, he'll inevitably become a dictator! He will never tolerate your Revolutionary Army continuing to exist!!"
"Foolish~"
Karasu, commander of the North Army, spoke very quietly, his voice filled with contempt.
The other two commanders wore exactly the same expressions.
"You don't need to worry about that~"
Dragon glanced sideways at him.
"Have you ever heard of constitutional monarchy, separation of powers, or a presidential system?"
Seeing the utterly confused expressions on their faces, Dragon shook his head.
He then turned away and shifted his gaze toward Roy, who was currently confronting the Five Elders after they had emerged from Pangaea Castle.
"Could someone capable of proposing systems like those really be some brutal dictator? Just like you said, even if he succeeds and then decides to kill us afterward, so what? He can succeed with or without us. Our involvement merely saves him a little trouble.
"We were never his opponents to begin with. The only thing we can do is trust him!"
At the same time, Dragon sensed the direction of the wind, and his ears twitched slightly.
He turned his gaze once more, looking toward someone who was rapidly charging in their direction, and a peculiar smile appeared on his face.
"I haven't seen my father in a long time either. Hopefully, he won't smack me across the face with his slipper again this time~"
The wind blew past.
Dragon disappeared from where he stood.
The other three commanders also split up, going to help Gin, Daz, and the others deal with the remaining agents.
High in the sky, Roy looked at the five figures floating in midair through gravitational attraction and repulsion before speaking softly.
"This should count as our first time meeting, right, Five Elders-san~?"
"Yes. This is indeed our first formal meeting. But we've seen your photograph far too many times, Thunder Emperor Roy!"
The Five Elder with the curly beard and scarred face narrowed his eyes as he spoke.
He was the user of the Gravity-Gravity Fruit.
(End of Chapter)
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